Moritz Rinke was born in the Lower Saxonian town of Worpswede not far from Bremen in 1967. After completing his Abitur (school qualification to enter higher education) and the civilian alternative to military service, he studied Drama, Theatre and Media at the Institute for Applied Dramatics, founded by Andrzej Wirth at the University of Giessen. While studying, he wrote columns and articles for newspapers and magazines like »Süddeutsche Zeitung«, »Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung«, »Die Zeit« and »Theater heute«, among others. From 1994 to 1996, he worked voluntarily at the »Tagesspiegel« and, as a result, he became cultural editor at the Berlin daily newspaper. He was awarded the Axel Springer Prize twice: in 1994 for his article »A day with Marlene« and in 1997 for his Love Parade report »And now the world needs a bath«.

His accurately observed essays, articles and comments were compiled in the volume »Erinnerungen an die Gegenwart« (tr. Memories of the Present), which he published in the sub-titled collections, »Der Blauwahl im Kirschgarten« (2001; tr. The Blue Whale in the Cherry Garden) and »Das große Stolpern« (2005; tr. The Great Stumbling). His play »Der graue Engel« (tr. The Grey Angel), which had its premiere performance at the Schauspielhaus Zürich in 1996, was Rinke’s debut as a playwright. His following plays earned him a reputation as one of the most celebrated, most successful and at the same time most controversial contemporary German playwrights. Rinke’s intimate play »Republik Vineta« (Vineta Republic), in which he has a meeting to develop an urban planned state decline into an absurdly comical dystopia caused by an obsession with control and power games, was chosen as the best German-speaking play in a critics’ survey in 2001 and was filmed in 2006 with Ulrich Matthes and Peter Lohmeyer. The much-performed »Café Umberto« as well as his new versions of the Nibelung (2002/2003; 2006/2008) attracted a great deal of attention. »Wir lieben und wissen nichts« (tr.: We love and do not know a thing) will celebrate its first night at Schauspiel Frankfurt in 2012. He was also involved as a scriptwriter in the anthology film »September«, which premiered in Cannes in 2003 and in which he also acted. In the anthology, the local effects of the terrorist attacks of September 11 are told in a fictional story with sometimes overlapping narratives. In 2010, Rinke’s first, autobiographically influenced novel »Der Mann, der durch das Jahrhundert fiel« (tr: The Man Who Fell Through the Century) eared, which took him four years to complete. In the book, he writes about three generations of his home town of Worpswede, the local artists’ colony and the nearby Teufelsmoor (Devil’s Moor). This sometimes surreal, at other times tragicomic debut soon became a bestseller. Rinke expressed his passion for football in literary terms in »Also sprach Metzelder zu Mertesacker ...« (2012. tr: Thus Spoke Metzelder to Mertesacker… ). What is more, he plays striker in the German car racing football team (Autonama), to whom the volume »Titelkampf« (2008: tr: Defending the Title) is dedicated.

In 2008, Rinke was portrayed in an arte documentary series in the film »Mein Leben« (tr: My Film). In 2009, he became visiting professor for Dramatic Writing at the German Institute of Literature in Leipzig. Rinke lives in Berlin.